{{Short description|Danish-British scholar of German literature (born 1965)}} {{infobox academic |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA}} |title = Professor of Medieval German Literature |occupation = Literary scholar and poet |birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1965|2|5}} |birth_name = Annette Marianne Volfing |alma_mater = St Edmund Hall, Oxford |thesis_title = A commentary on ''Der meide kranz'' by Henrich von Mügeln |workplaces = Oriel College, Oxford |discipline = German literature |sub_discipline = {{hlist|Middle High German literature|Christian devotional literature}} |thesis_year = 1993 |doctoral_advisor = Nigel F. Palmer |birth_place = Copenhagen, Denmark |citizenship = Danish<br>British (since 2017) }} '''Annette Marianne Volfing''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FBA}} (born 5 February 1965) is a Danish-British scholar of medieval German literature and poet. Since 2008, she has been Professor of Medieval German Literature at the University of Oxford.

== Academic career == Volfing completed her undergraduate degree at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating in 1985; she returned there to carry out her doctoral studies; her DPhil was awarded in 1993 for her thesis "A commentary on ''Der meide kranz'' by Heinrich von Mügeln". Her thesis was supervised by Nigel F. Palmer.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Volfing |first1=Annette |last2=Mossman |first2=Stephen |last3=Lähnemann |first3=Henrike |title=Nigel Palmer |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy |date=21 March 2024 |volume=21 |page=530 |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/5293/Memoirs-21-20-Palmer.pdf}}</ref> She was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford, the following year, alongside a lectureship at the University of Oxford (where she was promoted to reader in 2006 and Professor of Medieval German Literature two years later).<ref>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-284771 "Volfing, Prof. Annette Marianne"], ''Who's Who'' (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2017). Retrieved 4 July 2018.</ref><ref name=":0">[http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/people/annette-volfing "Annette Volfing"], ''University of Oxford''. Retrieved 4 July 2018.</ref><ref>[http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=2&uin=uk.bl.ethos.357700 "A commentary on Der Meide Kranz by Heinrich von Muegeln"], ''EthOS'' (British Library). Retrieved 4 July 2018.</ref>

According to her university profile, Volfing is a "medievalist with particular interest in later medieval religious, mysical, philosophical or allegorical writing";<ref name=":0" /> her British Academy adds that her research focuses on "mysticism; allegory; learned discourse (vernacular reception of the artes); didacticism; courtly romance; orientalism; discourses of gender and violence" in medieval German literature.<ref name=":1" />

=== Media work === Volfing has contributed reviews of books examining medieval literature and culture to the ''Times Literary Supplement''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Annette Volfing |url=https://www.the-tls.com/authors/annette-volfing |website=Times Literary Supplement |access-date=18 July 2025}}</ref>

=== Honours and awards === In 2015, Volfing was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.<ref name=":1">[https://www.britac.ac.uk/users/professor-annette-volfing "Professor Annette Volfing"], ''British Academy''. Retrieved 4 July 2018.</ref>

== Poetry == Alongside her academic career, Volfing has published two pamphlets of poetry: ''Ecliptic'' with Black Light Engine Room in 2016 and ''Learning Finnish'' with Paekakariki Press in 2021. Her poems have also appeared in magazines such as ''Magma Poetry''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Poetry Spring 2023 |url=https://thehighwindowpress.com/2023/02/18/poetry-spring-2003/ |website=The High Window |access-date=18 July 2025}}</ref>

== Personal life== Originally from Copenhagen, Volfing has lived in the United Kingdom since 1982 and obtained British citizenship in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |title=Annette Volfing – Decluttering |url=https://thestaresnest.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/annette-volfing-decluttering/ |website=The Stare's Nest |access-date=18 July 2025}}</ref>

== Publications ==

* ''Heinrich von Mügeln: >Der meide kranz<''. Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters 111 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1997). * ''John the Evangelist and Medieval German Writing: Imitating the Inimitable'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). * ''Medieval Literacy and Textuality in Middle High German. Reading and Writing in Albrecht’s Jüngerer Titurel'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). * (Co-editor with Burhhard Hasebrink, Hans-Jochen Schiewer and Almut Suerbaum) ''Innenräume in der Literatur des deutschen Mittelalters. XIX. Anglo-German Colloquium Oxford 2005'' (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2008). * (Co-editor with Sarah Bowden) ''Punishment and Penitential Practices in Medieval German Writing'', King's College London Medieval Studies (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2018).

== References == {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Volfing, Annette}} Category:Living people Category:1965 births Category:Academics from Copenhagen Category:Writers from Copenhagen Category:Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Category:Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:20th-century Danish academics Category:21st-century Danish academics Category:20th-century Danish women writers Category:21st-century Danish women writers Category:20th-century Danish poets Category:21st-century Danish poets Category:Danish medievalists Category:Scholars of German literature Category:Danish women academics Category:Danish women poets Category:Danish emigrants to England Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:20th-century German women poets Category:21st-century women poets